Let’s take a little journey into theoretical land…it’s the week after your wedding, all the guests have left town or gone back to their regular lives, you’re coming down off of the crazy high that is “wedding week” and sorting through all the memories of your day, when you suddenly wish you had some photos to look at! And you wonder when your photos will be ready to view…so you reach for your computer (or iPhone, or Blackberry), and start typing a friendly little email to your photographer(s)…
HOLD UP! STOP right there!
Before you go typing what you might think is an innocent email asking “Hey, just wondering when my photos are going to be ready? How are they coming along? Have any teaser shots yet? Do you think maybe they’ll be done in a week or two?”
I beg you to please think it through first.
Photographers everywhere are familiar with this email, I hear about it ALL the time. Even though it states very explicitly in the contract that it will take anywhere from 4 to 8 to 12 weeks (or whatever) to process and deliver your images, many brides and grooms think that maybe they are the exception to this, and the photographer just loves them so much that he’s been awake for the last 72 hours working on nothing but their photographs in an attempt to have them done in a week’s time.
Unfortunately, that just doesn’t happen. Photographers each have their own workflow but most edit weddings in the order that they are shot, and then add into this the time it takes for designing albums, ordering products, blogging, running a business, sleeping…you get the idea. Some photographer’s artistic vision relies heavily on programs like Photoshop and Lightroom, it’s how they create their art. Some don’t and that’s perfectly fine too. But it can take anywhere from an hour to one-hundred hours to edit a wedding. And since many photographers shoot multiple weddings a month (or one every weekend during the busy spring and fall seasons) it’s close to impossible to finish each one in a week. Typically photographers have a back log of anywhere from 2 to 5 weddings to edit before they start on yours.
And the last thing they need eating up their time is weekly (or daily as it’s been known to happen) emails asking “Are my photos done yet?”. Many times it’s not only the bride, but the groom, and the mother of the bride, and the mother of the groom, etc. So please pass along the message to your family as well. The photos will be finished when the contract says they will be. Photographers know you are excited to see them, and they are super excited to show them to you! But it’s important that each photo gets the time and attention it deserves (and that you paid for). So in the meantime, sit back, relax, and try to enjoy the bazillion photos your guests have already posted on Facebook. I promise, the wait will be worth it! 
